Almost 60 years later, Toyota is hoping the reverse strategy will work in another crisis, appointing Akio Toyoda to be its first founding-family chief executive since the mid-1990s.

It is a job that will test skills both inherited and learned. Toyota's global sales fell 4 per cent last year, driven down by a 15 per cent plunge in the US and declines in Japan and western Europe. It expects to report its first operating loss in decades for the financial year ending in March and has slashed production, jobs and investment in response.

Local media have labelled Mr Toyoda's appointment taisei hokan, after a 19th century edict that restored Japan's emperors to power after centuries of military rule. The usage is slightly mordant: many have asked why a family that controls just 2 per cent of Toyota's shares should be able to install its scion as chief executive.